Fun is fun-but I am done. Two weeks is a bit too long, and I definitely ready to go home.
I did want to take the opportunity to comment on the outrage being displayed in the Fox News set about the Tea Party getting extra scrutiny by the IRS. And as for the NSA-my Canadian Counterpart asks the simple question: What else did you expect?
Most of you will remember that I went apeshit when I first heard about the Bush NSA program that was implemented in secret, without congressional authorization, after 9/11. I went on about it for years, actually.
But the people who were fine with it then – and in some cases demanded the prosecution of journalists that reported on it – are out of their tiny pinheads about it now. Of course, these are almost universally the same twats that want a secret war in Syria, so go figure.
However there are a couple of important distinctions.First, Obama sought a FISA warrant for the records, which Bush never did, and Republicans insisted that he didn't have to under Unitary Executive Theory, the Authorization to Use Military Force Resolution of 2001 and the "Because ….Lincoln!" argument that they deploy whenever it fucking suits them.
Second, the GOP voted to change the law to to allow for exactly what Obama is doing today. Something I would advocate impeaching Obama for, Republicans legitimized way back when.
Obama did not invent this-he just kept on doing what Bush was doing, only complying with the minor details that Bush could not be bothered to do.
Which brings us to the IRS. For sure the optics are quite poor-the big black guy that every teabagger hates picking on the patriotic group of whiners known as the Tea Party. But when they whine-one should remember the stuff they leave out:
The Tea Parties weren't asserting a right, they were seeking a favor from the government in the form of non-profit tax status. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not aware of the right to tax-exempt status for anyone but Indians in the Constitution. Anyone who suggests otherwise is either ignorant of lying………….
President Nixon specifically targeted individuals for IRS harassment, just as Johnson and Kennedy did before him. The difference is that they weren't organized groups seeking deductions in a post-Citizens United world, which begs such scrutiny. Nixon went after individual members of groups, journalists and sundry political enemies, which is a clear abuse of power and something no one has accused Obama of.
Skippy Stalin's concluding line is a classic: "Do you want to pay higher tax rates just because shitty people with dishonest thinking don't want to pay any at all?"
What he said.